


If you have a piece of me, will you take your time?

by RonnieMinor



Series: Spirit of the Season - Teen Wolf Holiday Exchange fics [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 21:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RonnieMinor/pseuds/RonnieMinor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac goes to live with Stiles after the Alpha pack arrive in town. Things get off to a rocky start, but they don’t stay that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you have a piece of me, will you take your time?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lielabell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lielabell/gifts).



> Written for this prompt: 'Broken, twisted Issac makes my heart flutter. Especially when he is broken and twisted in Stiles’s direction.'
> 
> Sorry this is so short :/ (title is taken from ‘For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti’ by Sufjan Stevens)

When the Alpha pack comes, Derek sends him to stay with Stiles, claiming that it’s no longer safe for Isaac to stay with his Alpha; claiming that Stiles will keep him safe. What Stiles makes him feel – for the most part – is not safe, but unwelcome. Isaac isn’t exactly sure why; perhaps it’s because of what he was going to do to Lydia back when they thought she was the kanima, or perhaps it’s because Scott spends more time with Isaac than Stiles these days. Still, despite the fact the Sheriff is ridiculously accommodating and kind, staying in the Stilinski house is uncomfortable to say the least. 

Isaac doesn’t complain. After years of living in a house where he was constantly on edge and almost always afraid, ‘uncomfortable’ is hardly an issue. And given enough time, anyone can get used to a little discomfort. It’s not anything worth kicking up a fuss about, especially not when it would mean causing more trouble for his Alpha. 

Time passes like sand in an hourglass, days slipping into weeks and weeks slowly sliding together to become a month. Isaac learns not to jump when the Sheriff knocks on the door of what’s become his bedroom. He stops holding his breath as he lets himself in through the front door, and he stops straining to hear the sound of a car in the driveway. He even stops worrying about his grades, which - ironically enough - seems to make them improve. 

And Stiles? Unexpectedly, Stiles softens, like someone’s taken sandpaper to his sharp corners. Isaac doesn’t know why, but he doesn’t ask. His father never liked it when he asked questions. It’s hard to break a habit of almost a lifetime. 

Because he doesn’t ask, he’ll never know what changes. He’ll never know that it’s because Stiles has been watching him from the day he set foot in the Stilinski house and has noticed all those little things that Isaac strives so hard to hide. And as determined as Stiles was as the start to make Isaac pay for all his actions, the Sheriff’s son realises after a while just how wrong it is to punish someone who’s suffered so much already. 

It takes time, but after a while, Stiles stops wanting to break Isaac and starts wanting to put him back together instead. 

The day when things change – although only Stiles knows they’re changing, to begin with anyway – can be marked by one simple event. They’re in the kitchen one morning, eating breakfast in something like companionably silence, when Isaac’s arm catches his mug of coffee and sends it in a graceful arc of movement that winds up with it smashing on the floor. For a moment, they both freeze. Then Isaac’s on his knees with the spilled coffee and pieces of mug, babbling apologies, shoulders tight and eyes fearful. 

It takes a few seconds for Stiles to react but then he’s on his knees too, talking slowly and calmly like he’s trying to soothe a wild animal. Isaac relaxes, but barely. Soon after, Stiles sends him upstairs because the other boy’s jeans are coffee-soaked at the knees and Isaac will need to change before school. Then Stiles sets about gathering up all the pieces of the coffee cup, from the big chunks to the tiniest fragments. And _then_ , he wraps them in tissue paper and hides them in a cupboard. 

The better part of a fortnight passes before Stiles finishes putting the mug back together again, sticking each piece carefully back into place, even very the smallest shards. He feels like a fool when it’s done – the mug’s probably not going to be any use for drinking water out of, let alone coffee – but he’s come this far… 

He decides that it was worth every second of his time when he sees the look on Isaac’s face as the other boy picks up the repaired mug the next morning. Stiles has never seen this expression on Isaac before - the surprised, tentative pleasure in his wide eyes and the shy smile that he gives – but he decides that he likes it a lot. 

It takes much, much longer to put the pieces of Isaac back together – to find the right kind of glue and the right way to make everything fit – but Stiles doesn’t mind.


End file.
